Who was Breonna Taylor and what happened to her?

Team Udayavani, Sep 24, 2020, 2:00 PM IST

Aspiring nurse Breonna Taylor, 26, was shot to death by police in her own home on March 13. Her family sued the Kentucky city for the death in May and reached a $12m settlement. But they, alongside activists, have demanded criminal charges for the three officers who fired the shots.

Breonna Taylor

Breonna Taylor was a 26-year-old emergency medical technician from Louisville, Kentucky. The frontline medic had no criminal record and worked for two local hospitals.

According to BBC, She was at home in bed in Louisville on 13 March, when police officers entered her apartment shortly after midnight

The Louisville Metro Police Department narcotics officers raided her home, using a battering ram to take her front door off its hinges. Cops were looking for suspect Jamarcus Glover, who allegedly dated Breonna two years ago.

But the man was arrested in a separate raid ten miles away on the same night officers broke into her apartment. No drugs were found on her property and Ms Taylor had no criminal record.

At the time, Ms Taylor was in bed with her boyfriend Kenneth Walker, a licensed gun owner. He thought people were trying to break into the apartment and fired one shot of his pistol.

Mr Walker’s bullet struck a police officer, Jonathan Mattingly, in the leg. Mr Mattingly and two other officers, Brett Hankison and Myles Cosgrove, returned fire and shot more than 20 rounds. Taylor was hit multiple times and died in the hallway of her apartment

Three months after Breonna was killed, her name has been chanted all over the country and the world at mass protests against alleged police brutality, which erupted after the death of George Floyd in police custody